ONE-TO-ONE MARKETING: Marketers gear up for MMS India onslaught

India's telecom companies, Airtel and Hutch, have launched MMS, which allows users to send videos and audio content along with still images to mobile phones or email addresses. MMS can also incorporate a variety of fonts and formats, opening the door to greater viral marketing campaigns.

For advertisers, MMS provides an opportunity to capitalise on the popularity of SMS to reach India's estimated 11.7 million mobile phone users.

Coca-Cola India vice-president for marketing, Shripad Nadkarni, said: "In our case, SMS has proved its efficacy in reaching out to the target consumer group. The availability of MMS gives us the option of increasing the scale of interactivity through the multimedia interface and can maximise the impact on the consumer."

Airtel's new service is supported by the MMS Masala (spice) portal at www.airtelworld.com, where mobile users can send personalised greetings and download the brand's ambassadors' (Kareena Kapoor and Shahrukh Khan) snap shots.

Motorola and Yahoo India have also launched similar services, offering the option of uploading pictures and messages of preference to customise handset screens.

Meanwhile, telecom software company Cellnext has developed a technology which allows users of any mobile handset to send customised greetings to a MMS-enabled phone, even if the mobile service operator does not provide the service.

Atanu Mandal, chief executive officer of Cellnext, said the company would target India's film producers and content providers such as broadcasters, internet portals and mobile operators. The company is already working with Star India for the launch of SMS-related promotions.

Advertisers also have the option to use the CDMA platform. Benny Thomas, vice-president of TBWA Anthem, said: "CDMA also has the capacity to deliver graphics and video. This is on top of the locational advantages that all mobiles offer - the potential to target people geographically and make location-specific offers. However, these (new technologies) will also highlight the issue of privacy and permission marketing."

The issues of availability and affordability are also likely to plague the service as MMS requires a GPRS handset, which are presently priced at about Rs20,000 (US$422). However, by July this year, handsets (without built-in cameras) are expected to be available at half the cost.